Today's computing devices can perform more tasks than ever before. Manufactures and software developers continue to find new uses for computing devices. For example, with the proper hardware and software components, a computing device can serve as a communication device for communicating with friends and family. A popular type of communication application is instant messaging (IM). A local user may log on to an IM server using an appropriate application. Once the local user is logged on to the IM server, the local user may communicate with remote users located at different geographic locations. IM has been popular among users of desktop computing devices for some time now. Recently, IM has also become increasingly popular among users of mobile computing devices.
In conventional IM systems, a local user can usually determine whether a remote user is available for communication or chatting. Some IM systems also allow the local user to enter a particular profile for viewing by remote users. However, the user-entered profiles are static in nature and could not be updated automatically. Thus, although IM allows users to communicate with one another, the user experience is somewhat limited in scope.